STOCKHOLM -- A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by drawing the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog said Wednesday he has no regrets and believes the suspects in an alleged plot to kill him were not professionals.
Lars Vilks, who has faced numerous death threats over the controversial cartoon, said he has built his own defense system, including a "homemade" safe room and a barbed-wire sculpture that could electrocute potential intruders.
He said he also has an ax "to chop down" anyone trying to climb through the windows of his home in southern Sweden.
"If something happens, I know exactly what to do," Mr. Vilks told the Associated Press in an interview in Stockholm.
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The 63-year-old Mr. Wilks said the suspects in an alleged plot to kill him -- seven people arrested in Ireland and a Philadelphia woman held in the United States -- were "not the real hard professionals. I think they are rather low-tech."
He said he had learned from American media reports that the woman held in the United States, Colleen R. LaRose, who had called herself "JihadJane" in a YouTube video, had visited the area where he lives, but he didn't know whether that was correct. "I'm glad she didn't kill me," Mr. Vilks said with a half-smile.
An eccentric man with disheveled gray hair and thick-lensed glasses, Mr. Vilks referred to himself as "the artist" and described his life after his Muhammad drawing was first published by a Swedish newspaper in 2007 as if it were a movie plot.
"It's a good story. It's about the bad guys and a good guy, and they try to kill him," he said.
"They have this woman also which I think is a good part of the plot with this fantastic name, 'JihadJane,' who is actually doing some scouting there in the surroundings," Mr. Vilks added. "As I can see it, you have something of a film there. But as I said, I believe they're a bit low-tech."
